History Main / BedsheetLadder

* [[http://luciphurrsimps.com/2010/02/01/luci-phurrs-imps-this-is-a-mistake-right-4/ Proposed]] in ''LuciPurrsImps'', where the other demons point out that he got the sheets from outside the bedroom, and they could just go that way.

* In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/29319687/chapters/72006174 Long Live the Queen]], [[WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}} Wakko]] uses one his siblings made him to escape from the tower his grandmother imprisoned him in.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Stuart,_Lord_Darnley Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley]], the 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.

* This does not always work out so well, as the Website/DarwinAwards people will attest. [[http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin1997-12.html One Pennsylvania man]] fell to his death when his rope was cut by window glass.

The second snag that never occurs should be getting the window open. Has no-one ever heard of glass, locks, or bars? (Of course, if they have, the solution may be for someone to send them [[JailBake a cake with a file in]].)

* An early ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' strip had Calvin use one of these to sneak out of the house and find a pay phone to tell his dad that "It is now three in the morning. Do you know where I am?" In a much later story, he tried the same tactic to escape from his dreaded babysitter, Rosalyn.

* In ''Film/MaleficentMistressOfEvil'' [[spoiler:Aurora uses one to trick the guards in thinking she's escaped, then leaves through the door while locking them inside. However, later on she has to actually use it to escape another set of guards onto the next balcony below.]]

* ''Film/WomanInTheDunes'': The man being held prisoner in the bottom of the sand pit makes a rope out of fishnets and rags, fashions a grappling hook out of a pair of scissors and a piece of wood, and uses them to escape.
* 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: "[[GonnaNeedMoreX I need more sheets.]]"

* 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 Avi's ''Literature/BeyondTheWesternSea'', Laurence uses a bedsheet to escape from a fourth story hotel room.

** In ''Literature/DiamondsAreForever'', Bond, who is currently situated in a cruise ship, comes to conclusion that trying to [[DamselInDistress save Tiffany]] by charging through Wint's and Kidd's cabin door would only get her killed, so he rips his bedsheets to form a ladder to get into their cabin below his through their window.
* ''Literature/TheMarvellousLandOfSnergs'': Joe, Sylvia and Baldry escape from the witch's cottage by tearing and knotting the bed sheets, and then lowering Sylvia to the ground. Afterwards, Joe and the buffoon climb down the vines clinging to the wall.
* ''Literature/MrsSmithsSpySchoolForGirls'': [[THeProtagonist Abigail]] uses this a couple of times, such as sneaking out of her first floor bedroom window.

* ''Series/MacGyver1985'': In "Nightmares", Mac lowers a fire hose through a window in order to fool the bad guys into thinking he has escaped down it. He was actually hiding under an old turned over couch.
* Parodied on ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'', as Al tries to escape from his greedy family by climbing down a rope made of toilet paper. It works, even though there's no way it could have supported his weight, but Peg and the kids catch him trying to sneak out anyway.

* One of the "Boy vs. Boredom" sketches on ''Series/YoureSkittingMe'' has Jeremy attempting to escape from going clothes shopping with his mother by tearing shirts into strips, fashioning them into a rope and using a wire hanger as a crude grappling hook to climb out of a changing room. It doesn't work.

* In an illustration for a story told in ''Dark Realm: Queen of Flames'' the older of twin princesses uses one to escape from a palace balcony when she runs away after their father's death.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/COPS1988'' episode "The Case of the Baby Bad Guy", Small Guy and his henchmen sneak out of the Lopsided Orphanage by climbing out the window using a ladder made of bed sheets.

* In ''WesternAnimation/HomeMovies'', Melissa is inducted against her will into the Fairy Princess Club, which exists solely to make its young conscripts sell their merchandise at the mall. She escapes the live-in headquarters at night, setting a fire (including an UnflinchingWalk from the explosion she set) and uses a rope made from merchandise cloth...to exit a first story window.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'' episode, "A Bad Reflection on You, Part Two", Shere Khan's pilots make one for Kit to help him escape from their prison cell on the Iron Vulture. When a knot in one of the bedsheets comes undone, Kit nearly falls into the water, but manages to climb into the window of Don Karnage's dressing room.

** In ''WesternAnimation/PorkyPigsFeat'', Daffy and Porky use one to try and escape a hotel without paying. The hotel manager catches them at the bottom and gives Porky a hotfoot that sends them flying back up the Bedsheet Ladder to their room. Daffy stops along the way to ogle in a window and wolf whistle -- going down and again going back up.

* ''WebAnimation/RWBYChibi'': During "Fugitive", when Sun and Neptune in their [[CowboyCop Junior Detective]] [[BadassMustache personas]] corner Jaune - or rather, Felipe - in his dorm, he makes a daring escape out the window via this trope. But there's one itty-bitty problem.

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

* In the ''WesternAnimation/COPSAnimatedSeries'' episode "The Case of the Baby Bad Guy", Small Guy and his henchmen sneak out of the Lopsided Orphanage by climbing out the window using a ladder made of bed sheets.

* In ''Baby-Sitting Is a Dangerous Job,'' Darcy and her babysitting charges have been kidnapped and are being held captive in a room with a mattress and blanket. She tries to make a rope from the blanket, but RealityEnsues when it turns out the blanket is too strong to be torn by hand.

* In Lawrence Block's ''Two for Tanner'' Evan leaves a prostitute's room this way to avoid the men tailing him.

Realistically speaking, there ''[[RealityEnsues should]]'' be three snags to this plan. The first snag is that, unless said room also has a linen closet filled with several other sheets, the character shouldn't be able to make a long enough rope. This never happens, whether they're in a second-story bedroom or in a cell in the 30-stories tall EvilTowerOfOminousness.

A princess, especially a RebelliousPrincess, will frequently do this. That goes double if she's a GirlInTheTower.

* ''Webcomic/Endtown'' [[https://www.gocomics.com/endtown/2011/05/17]]
* ''Webcomic/EvilDiva'' [[http://www.evildivacomics.com/?p=486 Out of her own bedroom]]

* ''Webcomic/{{Precocious}}'': [[http://www.precociouscomic.com/archive/comic/2011/02/23 All she wanted to do]]. Which is why her parents planted roses under the window.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'', [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3155 Fuschia's escape]].
* ''Webcomic/TheWorldIsFlat'' depicts this [[http://theworldisflatcomics.tumblr.com/post/141107098814/moonlighting-as-a-dinosaur-i-recently-surpassed here.]]

* Bloo tries it in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'', but forgets to tie the other end down.* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "The Inhuman Torch", Fry is dangling one-handed from the widow's walk of the burning Planet Express building, holding an ineffectually short rope made from his clothes. [[CloudCuckoolander It's quickly revealed that he was already making the clothing rope when the fire started]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' episode "Quiverwing Quack", Gosalyn sneaks out of her room after getting grounded by climbing out of the window with a ladder made of bedsheets.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/COPSAnimatedSeries'' episode "The Case of the Baby Bad Guy", Small Guy and his henchmen sneak out of the Lopsided Orphanage by climbing out the window using a ladder made of bed sheets.

* 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 ''Literature/TheWindInTheWillows'', this is how Toad escapes when the other animals confine him to try to cure him of his obsession with motor cars.
* ''Literature/JamesBond'':
** Bond fakes one up in ''Literature/{{Moonraker}}'' to cover the fact that he and Gala are still in the rocket base.
** In ''Literature/DiamondsAreForever'', Bond, who is currently situated in a cruise ship, comes to conclusion that trying to [[DamselInDistress save Tiffany]] by charging through Wint's and Kidd's cabin door would only get her killed, so he rips his bedsheets to form a ladder to get into their cabin below his through their window.
* In ''Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth'' by Creator/HPLovecraft, the protagonist escapes from an upper story of the local HellHotel by using the drapes as a ladder.
* ''Literature/{{Uprooted}}'' has a variant when Agnieszka uses all the dresses from Dragon's GorgeousGarmentGeneration spell to climb down from the tower (which is unoccupied apart from herself and the absent Dragon) and answer the distress beacon from her hometown. It's rather harrowing because it's night, so she doesn't know if the ladder is actually long enough, and the tower has such smooth sides that her shoulders end up very sore at the end of the climb.
* This is how the heroine of Creator/GeorgetteHeyer's ''The Corinthian'' meets the hero: he notices her climbing out of her window using a bedsheet ladder (she's also [[SweetPollyOliver dressed as a boy]]), and, when the makeshift rope turns out to be too short, agrees to catch her when she jumps. Cue "''You're'' not a boy!"
* There was a lesser-known Creator/DrSeuss book ''The Seven Lady Godivas'', which was about seven nudist sisters deciding not to marry their suitors the Peeping Brothers until they've each discovered useful information about horses after their father gets killed trying to ride one. When Gussie and Hedwig are the only ones who have yet to find a Horse Truth and marry a Peeping brother, Gussie tries to climb a ladder of bedsheets so she can sneak off and marry Peeping Sylvester without finding a Horse Truth first. Hedwig catches her and reprimands her for attempting to abdicate her goal.
* In Lawrence Block's ''Two for Tanner'' Evan leaves a prostitute's room this way to avoid the men tailing him.
* In Edith Pargeter's historical novel ''Sunrise in the West'', the Welsh prince Griffith ap Llewellyn is held hostage in London, and attempts to escape out a window using a rope smuggled to him by his family. Finding the rope too short, he extends it with the bedclothes and wall hangings in his apartment. He is a large man, and the wall hangings are old and somewhat fragile; the rope gives way and he is killed in the fall.
* ''Literature/TheHouseWithAClockInItsWalls'': In the sequel ''The Vengeance of the Witch-Finder'', Lewis uses one to successfully escape his room at Barnavelt Manor, tying the blanket and two sheets together (with the blanket end tied to the bedpost).
* ''Literature/TheMarvellousLandOfSnergs'': Joe, Sylvia and Baldry escape from the witch's cottage by tearing and knotting the bed sheets, and then lowering Sylvia to the ground. Afterwards, Joe and the buffoon climb down the vines clinging to the wall.
* ''Literature/MrsSmithsSpySchoolForGirls'': [[THeProtagonist Abigail]] uses this a couple of times, such as sneaking out of her first floor bedroom window.

* A rare subversion occurred on ''Series/JeevesAndWooster'' when Gussie wanted to use Bertie's sheet to escape. Bertie refused to let him, as much because it wouldn't work as because he didn't want his sheets dirty and knotted. To be fair, Bertie's been known to use his sheets for the same purpose. At least in [[Literature/JeevesAndWooster the books]].
* ''Series/ThreesCompany'''s trio tried to do this when trapped in Jack's bedroom by diamond thieves but they ended up throwing the whole sheet out the window.
* ''Series/BurnNotice'': In "Better Halves", Fi gets angry with Michael when he rips the skirt of her expensive new gown and uses it (along with his tuxedo jacket) to create a ladder to get them off a hotel balcony.
* In one episode of ''Series/ILoveLucy'', Lucy attempts to escape from an alleged apartment fire via a ladder made of bedsheets. While they unloop while she's climbing down, her fall is broken by the apartment building canopy. There are other reasons for hijinks, though, which do ensue.
* One of the "Boy vs. Boredom" sketches on ''Series/YoureSkittingMe'' has Jeremy attempting to escape from going clothes shopping with his mother by tearing shirts into strips, fashioning them into a rope and using a wire hanger as a crude grappling hook to climb out of a changing room. It doesn't work.
* ''Series/HorribleHistories'': The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Oi2YCzGxO4 Stupid Death]] of Griffith Ap Llewelyn, who didn't use enough sheets.
* Parodied on ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'', as Al tries to escape from his greedy family by climbing down a rope made of toilet paper. It works, even though there's no way it could have supported his weight, but Peg and the kids catch him trying to sneak out anyway.
* ''Series/MissFishersMurderMysteries'': In "Unnatural Habits" a bedsheet ladder is planted to make it look like the murdered girl had escaped from the confinement cell through the window. Phryne sees through it because the knots used would not have held the girl's weight.

* ''Series/BlackBooks'': In "Manny Come Home", Manny is ordered to cut his hair by his new boss at Goliath Books. Locking himself in the bathroom, he leaves the clippers running so it sounds like he is still in there and [[BathroomBreakOut climbs out the bathroom window]] using the continuous hand towel like a bedsheet ladder.
* ''Series/MacGyver1985'': In "Nightmares", Mac lowers a fire hose through a window in order to fool the bad guys into thinking he has escaped down it. He was actually hiding under an old turned over couch.

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

[[folder:Puppet Show]]
* In ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' when the pigs took over the show and threw Kermit and Fozzie into the boiler room. Fozzie suggested they escape by tying sheets together and going out the window. Kermit then pointed out a flaw in Fozzie's plan: What window?
[[/folder]]

* In an illustration for a story told in ''Dark Realm: Queen of Flames'' the older of twin princesses uses one to escape from a palace balcony when she runs away after their father's death.

* In ''Cadenza 3: Havana Nights'' the main character uses a bunch of scarves to escape from a balcony.
* In ''Grim Facade 7: Monster in Disguise'' the detective uses one to chase after the killer.
* ''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.
* ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'' has this occur in the first Nonary Game, where [[spoiler:Seven uses one to save the children from the incinerator.]]
* In ''VideoGame/MysteryCaseFiles 16: The Revenant's Hunt'' the detective leaves Eliza's room this way to get past the Revenant waiting downstairs.

* Bloo tries it in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'', but forgets to tie the other end down.
* WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes:
** WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck does it to escape from gangsters in the short ''Golden Yeggs'', but the bottom half of the ladder turns out the be the gangsters themselves.
** In ''WesternAnimation/PorkyPigsFeat'', Daffy and Porky use one to try and escape a hotel without paying. The hotel manager catches them at the bottom and gives Porky a hotfoot that sends them flying back up the Bedsheet Ladder to their room. Daffy stops along the way to ogle in a window and wolf whistle -- going down and again going back up.
* 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.
* In ''WesternAnimation/HomeMovies'', Melissa is inducted against her will into the Fairy Princess Club, which exists solely to make its young conscripts sell their merchandise at the mall. She escapes the live-in headquarters at night, setting a fire (including an UnflinchingWalk from the explosion she set) and uses a rope made from merchandise cloth...to exit a first story window.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'' episode "Home Alone", Riley attempted this to try and escape from his room (Huey had grounded him). This literally backfired as Huey lit the rope on fire, so Riley immediately retreated into his room.
* In ''WesternAnimation/PuffTheMagicDragon and the Incredible Mr. Nobody'', Terry, after being told by his parents that his eponymous imaginary friend isn't real, and unable to find him after that talk, runs away to find his friend by making a bedsheet rope and climbing out the window. But since his friend wasn't there to help him tie the knots, the rope comes apart, and he lands in Puff's waiting arms. They go on a journey and eventually find Mr. Nobody, and Terry resolves his issues. [[spoiler:Then it's revealed that he actually landed in the lilac bush outside his window and had been [[AllJustADream knocked out the whole time]].]]
* Used by the couch to escape from the Taj Mahal in a CouchGag on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheReluctantWerewolf'', Scooby and Shaggy use a bedsheet ladder in an attempt to escape Dracula's castle. However, as their room overlooks the moat, they don't actually manage to go anywhere.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' episode, "[[Recap/RugratsS1E8RealOrRobotsSpecialDelivery Real or Robots?]]", Tommy makes one to get out of his crib when Stu taped it shut to prevent him from getting out of it and into his bedroom.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "The Inhuman Torch", Fry is dangling one-handed from the widow's walk of the burning Planet Express building, holding an ineffectually short rope made from his clothes. [[CloudCuckoolander It's quickly revealed that he was already making the clothing rope when the fire started]].

* Played with in ''Anime/YuGiOh'', Mokuba attempts to escape from Pegasus' castle by climbing down a bedsheet rope. Reality ensues when he runs out of sheets long before he can reach the bottom. 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''.
-->'''[[WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries Mokuba]]:''' [[DidntThinkThisThrough I probably should've thought this throooouuuuugh...!]]
* In the 12th episode of ''Anime/MacrossFrontier'', Alto used a bedsheet ladder to escape the custody of a rogue Zentradi group. It looked somewhat realistic because they were kept on a second floor only, in a ''very'' makeshift cell, guarded by not terribly determined guards, and all that on a military base full of 20-meter-tall soldiers armed to the teeth.
* Euphemia uses one in her debut episode of ''Anime/CodeGeass''. It's about two stories too short, so of course [[MeetCute she falls into the arms of her future romantic interest]].

* In the Devil's Due ''ComicBook/SheenaQueenOfTheJungle'' series, Sheena fakes an escape from a hospital by dropping a bedsheet ladder out of a window and hiding behind the door. While the guards are looking at the ladder and wondering how she got away, she sneaks out the door.

* In the final issue of the original ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'' run, Karolina mentions doing this to sneak away from her foster family for the team's reunion.
-->'''Karolina:''' ''[waiting]'' Hello? Guys? Come on, I didn't tie my bedsheets together for nothing, did I?

* Subverted by ''ComicStrip/ModestyBlaise''; she carefully keeps track of the guard rotations and uses equipment specially [[VictoriasSecretCompartment smuggled in her bra]] to saw through the bar. When the guard sees the Bedsheet Ladder and rushes into the cell, she brains him from behind with the cut-out bar. Now she has the run of the place to recon the real escape before hiding in the neighboring cell.

* Nasty uses one to escape from Hunter Yurk's compound in ''ComicStrip/TerryAndThePirates''.
* The escape-obsessed crayfish in ''ComicStrip/{{Swamp}}'' escapes from his tank in one strip by tying all of the diner's dishcloths together into a rope.

* In ''[[http://kinsfire.fanficauthors.net/Betrayed/Excrement_Meet_Fan/ Betrayed]]'' Harry uses one to escape from a locked room while wandless but has to drop the last twenty feet or so.
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12588000/12/Consequences Consequences]]'' Harry makes one and hangs it out the window but is rescued by Snape before he can use it.
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12562072/29/Harry-Potter-and-the-Daft-Morons Harry Potter and the Daft Morons]]'' Neville uses one to escape from his bedroom after his grandmother seals the door magically.
* ''FanFic/MermaidMelodyPichiPichiDuo'': After Nikora declares that the Mermaid Princesses are forbidden to leave the Pearl Piari for any reason, the girls use one to escape through Lucia's bedroom.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}'', Carl tries to lower down Russell with one of these. Then he drops it, being about seventy. Fortunately, it was a DaydreamSurprise.
* In ''WesternAnimation/CorpseBride'', Victoria does this with a quilt, though she does nearly get caught by her father.

* In ''WesternAnimation/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 ''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.

* In ''Film/SullivansTravels'', this is how Sullivan escapes from the home of the horny widow.

* 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: "[[GonnaNeedMoreX I need more sheets.]]"
* In ''Film/TenaciousDInThePickOfDestiny'', a young Jables manages to escape his room this way.

* In ''Film/{{Adrift}}'', the protagonists take off their swimsuits to make a ladder to get back onto their boat. It doesn't work.
* After confronting the burgomaster who took his house, Baron Frankenstein in ''The Evil of Frankenstein'' escapes the constables arriving on the scene by locking himself behind the bedroom doors, and using the bedsheets to climb down from the higher floor.
* In ''Irma La Douce'' Nestor Patou is put in jail for "murdering" his alter ego "Lord X" after being caught throwing the Lord's clothing into the Seine when he tired of the pretense. The local bartender Moustache brings him a bunch of Irma's trademark green silk stockings. When he asks why Moustache says that if he doesn't want them then he should throw them out the window. He finally gets the hint and makes his escape later that day.
* Done with a rope in the Creator/MarxBrothers' ''Film/HorseFeathers''. Chico and Harpo are locked into an upstairs room by the rival football team, but Harpo luckily has a large piece of rope in his coat. Chico tells him "Tie on-a the bed, throw out the window!" Harpo takes off his tie, drops it on the bed, and throws the rope out the window.
* Played with in ''[[Film/ThreeNinjas 3 Ninjas Kick Back]]''. 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.
* In ''Film/TheAdventuresOfBaronMunchausen'', the Baron and his companions descend from the Moon to the Earth by tying a lock of the Queen of the Moon's hair to a horn of the crescent Moon. It's not quite long enough, so the Baron cuts off the top end and tells the guy at the bottom to tie it on. This works, somehow.
* Linda escapes her apparently unpleasant boarding school this way in ''Film/DaysOfHeaven''.
* 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.

* In ''Film/BeautyAndTheBeast2017'', on Belle's first night in the castle, she tries to escape by making a ladder out of the huge, gaudy dress Mme. de Garderobe made for her.
* In ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'', Barbara Wilson uses one to escape her bedroom in the Wayne Manor so that she could go out on one of her nightly motorcycle races with the local Gotham City gangs.
* In ''Film/MaleficentMistressOfEvil'' [[spoiler:Aurora uses one to trick the guards in thinking she's escaped, then leaves through the door while locking them inside. However, later on she has to actually use it to escape another set of guards onto the next balcony below.]]
* At the start of ''Film/BottleRocket'', Anthony exits the mental hospital via a bedsheet tied to his bed and thrown out the window. He was actually free to leave, but Dignan was so keen on the idea of him escaping that Anthony didn't want to disappoint him.
* In ''Film/LizzieBordensRevenge'', Amanda and Cindy use a bedsheet to lower Dee from the upper floor of the sorority house to the ground.

* ''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 silk to make a replacement ladder so she can escape, but the plan is ruined when she gives the game away. Apparently, he never thought of just bringing ''a rope''.

* In ''Literature/WorldWarZ'', one of the anecdotes is an Otaku telling the chronicler that he escaped from his high rise in Japan by making a BedsheetLadder...it was slow going and extremely dangerous given that he was weaponless, the high rise was full of [[ZombieApocalypse zombies]], and he had to break into a new apartment every couple of floors to get more sheets.

* ''Literature/TheShieldOfStars'': Referenced. In actuality, the main character escapes through a trapdoor. However, he thoughtfully makes a rope blanket and tosses it out the window anyway as a decoy, just in case the guards thought he really was stupid enough to try that death-defying drop onto jagged rocks. (And lucky enough to survive, too!)
* ''Literature/EncyclopediaBrown'': "The Case of the Missing Statue", from book 3, 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. (This also happened in Two-Minute Mysteries, its sister series.)
* Literature/TheBible:
** Michal helps her beloved David escape her father King Saul's wrath with this trick. She also sticks a human-sized idol in his bed so she can tell her father's messengers he's sick and still asleep.
** [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold Rahab]] probably also helped the spies get out of Jericho by a similar trick. (Her residence was built right into the city walls.)
* In Creator/RobertEHoward's "Literature/TheSlitheringShadow", Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian uses a tapestry instead of sheets.
* In Avi's ''Literature/BeyondTheWesternSea'', Laurence uses a bedsheet to escape from a fourth story hotel room.

* Nicely subverted by ComicStrip/ModestyBlaise; she carefully keeps track of the guard rotations and uses equipment specially [[VictoriasSecretCompartment smuggled in her bra]] to saw through the bar. When the guard sees the Bedsheet Ladder and rushes into the cell, she brains him from behind with the cut-out bar. Now she has the run of the place to recon the real escape before hiding in the neighboring cell.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}'', the men escape from a tower by tying together their kilts. [[FanDisservice And since they are true Scotsmen...]]

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': Gell Osey climbs out of the room she's being kept in as part of her initiation into the Holliday Girl's sorority--which is harsher than most because she acts like a spoiled jealous brat and verbally harasses just about everyone--using the linens she found in the room, but they tore and she fell the last few feet.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' episode, "[[Recap/RugratsS1E8RealOrRobotsSpecialDelivery Real or Robots?]]" Tommy makes one to get out of his crib when Stu taped it shut to prevent him from getting out of it and into his bedroom.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "The Inhuman Torch," Fry is dangling one-handed from the widow's walk of the burning Planet Express building, holding an ineffectually short rope made from his clothes. [[CloudCuckoolander It's quickly revealed that he was already making the clothing rope when the fire started]].