History Main / BodybagTrick

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

* ''{{Series/CSI}}'': Catherine and D.B. use this trick to get themselves smuggled back into the lab when a hit team is looking for them in "Willows in the Wind".

* ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo''.
** And (partly) averted: Dantes expects to merely be buried, at which point he can dig himself free and escape. However, he learns the hard way that the Chateau d'If buries its dead at sea - and still manages to escape, even though it's much harder going.

* Simon and River of ''{{Series/Firefly}}'' use this technique to beat the security and get into a mega-hospital in the episode "Ariel". Bonus points for actually making their hearts stop to get in.

* In the first ''Film/Re-Animator'' film, Dan Cain helps Herbert West sneak into the hospital morgue by wheeling him in shoeless on a gurney, covered with a sheet.

* This is how Herbert West gets into the morgue in the first ''Film/ReAnimator'' film.

* In ''Film/Saw3D'', [[spoiler: Hoffman hides in a body bag so he can sneak into the police station and kill Jill Tuck.]]

If used as a means of escape, may end with the character being BuriedAlive -- but not for long. A subtrope -- and a subversion -- of ZippingUpTheBodybag. See also CoffinContraband and SavedByTheCoffin.

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]

[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]

If used as a means of escape, may end with the character being BuriedAlive -- but not for long. A subtrope -- and a subversion -- of ZippingUpTheBodybag. See also CoffinContraband.

* In ''The Crocodile Tomb'', the fourth part of ''Literature/GodsAndWarriors'', [[spoiler:Hylas is hidden in the coffin of a sacred crocodile that's taken to a tomb of embalmed animals during a festival. Once alone in the sealed tomb, he comes out and finds the hidden entrance to Userref's family tomb where he gives Userref's mummy the Spells for Coming Forth by Day and takes [[TheArtifactOfDoom the dagger of Koronos]] from the coffin]].

* In ''Film/MoreDeadThanAlive'', members of Luke Santee's gang conceal themselves inside the coffins TheUndertaker is bringing into the prison to collect the bodies of the executed prisoners.

* Killer Frost uses it in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanAssaultOnArkham''.

[[folder:Film]]

* Used to get Killer Frost into the morgue in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanAssaultOnArkham''.

* HoboWithAShotgun: When the Hobo kills the DirtyCop who is attempting to rape Abby, his shots draw the attention of the mob who are hunting the homeless. Abby runs past them, looking convincingly panicked, with the cop's body in a shopping trolley. She yells to the mob that HeWentThatWay and they head off in pursuit. After they have gone, the Hobo emerges from the shopping trolley where he has been hidden under (and partially inside) the cop's corpse.

[[caption-width-right:350:It works better is you don't move. Or talk.]]

[[quoteright:350:[[Series/{{Scrubs}}'' https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bodybag_trick.jpg]]]]

* ''ComicBook/GIJoeIDW'': Kwinn and Lighthorse smuggle Snake-Eyes across the border by hiding him a coffin inside a hearse and say they are returning a family member to be buried in his native land.

* In ''Film/BlackBook'', the BigBad, a corrupt and treacherous member of LaResistance in German-occupied Holland, is smuggled away in a coffin by some of his comrades. Unfortunately for him, they've been told about his evil deeds, and deliberately seal the coffin and leave him to suffocate.