History Main / BedsheetLadder

* 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.
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13315643/11/Harry-Potter-and-the-Vault-of-Time Harry Potter and the Vault of Time]]'', Harry and Neville use their dorm bedsheets to get them and Hermione down the trapdoor in Fluffy's room.

* 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 ''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 [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome it turns out that the blanket is too strong to be torn by hand]].

* ''ComicStrip/TheWizardOfId''. The [[PrisonEscapeArtist Spook]] is said to have attempted to escape by creating a ladder from his own hair. The problem was by the time he was finished, "there was nothing left to escape" (a joke on the Spook's excessive GodivaHair).

* ''ComicStrip/TheWizardOfId''. The [[PrisonEscapeArtist Spook]] is said to have attempted to escape by creating a ladder from his own hair. The problem was by the time he was finished, "there was nothing left to escape" (a joke on the Spook's excessive hair).

* Referred to in the ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' episode "[[Recap/RedVsBlueS3E4YoureTheBombYo You're The Bomb, Yo]]", when Church and Grif are trapped in a cell and left to die.

** 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 at a cheesecake picture and wolf whistle -- going down and again going back up.
** In ''Baby Buggy Bunny'', "Babyface" Finster does this while under the care of Bugs Bunny to escape from his burrow with his stolen money.
* 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 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/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.

* Estonian thief Martin Vaiksaar used knotted bedsheets to scale 3 23-foot walls to escape from a jail near Finland's capital city of Helsinki. Despite the facility being brand new with a (presumably) recent staff, it took them an entire day to notice that he had escaped. The tale gets weirder in that he managed to get back to Estonia to find that the police were not interested in the fact that Finnish and Estonian authorities were both meant to be after him.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Stuart,_Lord_Darnley Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley]], the second husband of [[UsefulNotes/MaryOfScotland Mary, Queen of Scots]] and the father of [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfStuart James VI of Scotland and I of England]], 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, turning a death that would have looked like an accident into something much more suspicious. A few years later the English worried about his ex-wife using this trope to escape Bolton Castle. She didn't.

* [[http://loweringthebar.net/2015/08/further-review.html On a more hilarious note]], convicts attempting this should first make sure that the window they intend to escape out of is wide enough to allow them to squeeze through.

* 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 December 2012 two inmates apparently [[http://news.yahoo.com/2-inmates-escape-high-rise-jail-chicago-214646886.html used one of these]] to escape from a high-rise federal prison in Chicago.
* A sad example: the 2017 Grenfell Tower Fire in London UK where a 24-storey block of flats caught fire and survivor testimonies stated that some trapped residences in the higher floors were trying to escape out the windows with ropes made from linens and bedding.

* In [[Recap/TheMuppetShowS2E24 the Cloris Leachman episode]] of ''Series/TheMuppetShow'', the pigs take over the show and throw Kermit and Fozzie into the boiler room. Fozzie suggests they escape by tying sheets together and going out the window. Kermit then points out a flaw in Fozzie's plan: What window?

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

* In ''Cadenza 3: Havana Nights'' the main character uses a bunch of scarves to escape from a balcony.
* In an illustration for a story told in ''Dark Realm: Queen of Flames'', the older of the twin princesses uses one to escape from a palace balcony when she runs away after their father's death.
* One of the craftable items in the prison-break game ''VideoGame/TheEscapists'', called the "Sheet Rope." It's used to descend from rooftops.
* In ''VideoGame/GrimFacade 7: Monster in Disguise'' the detective uses one to chase after the killer.

* In ''VideoGame/MysteryCaseFiles 16: The Revenant's Hunt'' the detective leaves Eliza's room this way to get past the Revenant waiting downstairs.
* ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'' has this occur in the first Nonary Game, where [[spoiler:Seven uses one to save the children from the incinerator.]]
* In ''VideoGame/ProjectZomboid'' the [[https://pzwiki.net/wiki/Sheet_Rope Sheet Rope]] is one of the most useful items in the game, it is crafted with either sheets or certain types of clothing. They are mainly used to further fortify forts and secure safehouses, allowing either for a quick getaway or an entrance that no zombie will be able to follow or destroy.

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

* ''WebAnimation/RWBYChibi'': During "Fugitive", when Sun and Neptune in their [[CowboyCop Junior Detective]] 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.

''([[ButtMonkey Jaune]] can be heard screaming as he falls to the ground.)''

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

* ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'': In "Bed and Breakfast", Linda turns the Belcher home into a bed-and-breakfast and manically insists their guests participate in her 'fun' activities - when she locks the guests in their rooms, a couple try a bedsheet ladder escape, but need to ask for help when the ladder is too short.
* 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.
* Jeff from ''WesternAnimation/{{Clarence}}'' uses one to escape from his room in "Jeff Wins."

* 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/{{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 ''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.

* Played with in ''Series/TheAvengers1960s'' episode "The Danger Makers:''

* 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/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.

* ''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.
* 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?
* Subverted in an episode of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'', where Mike decides to make one from all the loose clothing he can find around the Satellite of Love, including Crow's Underoos. The 'Bots remind him that he's trying this in a geosynchronous orbit and that would be unwise. And besides, Crow wants his Underoos back.
** Later Mike does make it down with a steel chain ladder, only to be prodded back up by Pearl and Brain Guy.
* ''Series/{{Mythbusters}}'': Tested and ''confirmed'' -- Grant was able to climb down a 14-story building using a rope made from prison bedsheets. Kari did it with human hair plaited into a rope, while Tory did the same thing with ''toilet paper''.
* ''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.

* In ''Manga/BlackButler'', [[spoiler:Elizabeth Midford escapes from her bedroom to go back to the music hall this way.]]

* In ''Manga/JunjouRomantica'', Usami's brother Haurhiko locks Misaki [[LockingMacGyverInTheStoreCupboard in a storeroom 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.

* 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.
* 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''.

* During ''ComicBook/TheMask'' comic series, Walter escapes from his hospital room this way, although the actual escape is never shown, only the aftermath. The two detectives viewing the scene snark that he must watch too many movies - and eat way too much popcorn, as the bedsheets tore.

* In ''[[Literature/JohnCarterOfMars Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris]]'' #35, Tala escapes from the palace in Greater Helium by knotting the bedsheets together and climbing down the outside of the wall. However, the ladder is too short and she ends up having to drop the last dozen feet or so.
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: 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.

* An early ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' strip had Calvin use one of these to sneak out of the house and find a payphone 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.

* 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.
* Calvin uses this a few times in ''Fanfic/CalvinAndHobbesTheSeries''.
* 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.
* 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.
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13315643/11/Harry-Potter-and-the-Vault-of-Time Harry Potter and the Vault of Time]]'' Harry and Neville use their dorm bedsheets to get them and Hermione down the trapdoor in Fluffy's room.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/1524565/20/Somnio-Salvus Somnio Salvus]]'' Harry and Draco use one to escape from a locked room where no magic can be used.

* 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.

* 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.
* Subverted in the first ''Film/CharliesAngels2000'' 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.

* In ''Film/TheGreatRace'', Creator/NatalieWood's character makes one of these out of her clothes. It doesn't work, but we do get to enjoy several subsequent scenes of her in [[OfCorsetsSexy period lingerie]], so [[FanService it's all good]].

* In ''Film/IrmaLaDouce'' 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.

** In ''Film/{{Octopussy}}'', Magda uses a variation of this to escape from Bond: she ties one end of the sari she's wearing to a balustrade and jumps off the balcony, "riding" the garment down to safety as it unravels.

* 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 ''Literature/{{Adventures of Huckleberry Finn}}'' Jim, a fugitive slave, made one - on the 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 ''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 SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome when it turns out the blanket is too strong to be torn by hand.

* 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 Malory's ''Literature/LeMorteDArthur'' Sir Lancelot uses this trope when he is sleeping in a room in the tower of a castle and sees some knights being attacked below him. "(A)nd therewith he took his harness, and went out at a window by a sheet down to the four knights", thus demonstrating that this trope goes back at least as far as the fifteenth century. (Volume I, book VI chapter XI).

* 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!"
* 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.]]
* ''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.)
* In Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/TheEyesOfTheDragon,'' a prince attempts this with individual threads of the napkins. Guess whether he succeeded or not. This being Stephen King, [[spoiler:he has to jump the last 50 feet or so.]]
* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Literature/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.
* ''Literature/GracelingRealm'': Queen Ashen and princess Bitterblue start their escape from king Leck by knotting together a lot of bedsheets and climbing out of the window.
* ''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).

** 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 the 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 bedsheets 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.
* ''Literature/{{Rapunzel}}'': "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your 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''.
* 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.

* ''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/TwoForTanner'': Evan leaves a prostitute's room this way to avoid the men tailing him.
* ''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.

* 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.

* ''Anime/DoraemonNobitasThreeVisionarySwordsmen'': RebelliousPrincess Shizukaria escapes from her GildedCage bedroom in the palace using lavish rugs, ornate robes and bedsheets from her room.

* In ''VideoGame/ProjectZomboid'' the [[https://pzwiki.net/wiki/Sheet_Rope Sheet Rope]] is one of the most useful items in the game. It is crafted with either a sheets or certain clothing. They are mainly used to further fortify forts and safehouses. Allowing either for a quick getaway or an entrance that no zombie will be able to follow or destroy.

* WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes:

* ''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''.

* ''Series/{{Mythbusters}}'': Tested 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''.

A princess, especially a RebelliousPrincess, will frequently do this. That goes double if she's a GirlInTheTower. Some cases may involve the character [[GivingThemTheStrip sacrificing pieces of their clothing]] to make the ladder.